China's economy grows by 6.9% in 2017

Jon Douglas

"The national economy has maintained the momentum of stable and sound development and exceeded the expectation with the economic vitality, impetus and potential released", said National Statistics Bureau head Ning Jizhe as he presented the latest GDP figure on Thursday.

The headline numbers and signs of property market resilience support economist views that fundamentals will remain intact in 2018, although some see headwinds from tighter regulations, US trade protectionism and a softer consumer sector.

The International Monetary Fund sees China's 2017 growth also at 6.8 percent. Despite the uptick, the year-end figures reveal the extent to which China's once raging housing market has been pacified since 2016, when average home prices in China's first-tier cities jumped 23.5 percent, while rising 14 percent in second-tier communities and 11 percent in third-tier cities.

In the run-up to those numbers being announced, there's also been an unexpected spate of fairness from some provincial governments, who've told forging their GDP or economic amounts.

The 2017 economic growth figures give Xi bragging rights for guiding the economy to surpass the 6.5% growth rate that the government had originally targeted.

With fixed asset-investment growth at the weakest pace since 1999, exports helped pick up the slack.

In the fourth quarter, year-on-year GDP growth held steady at 6.8%, while the rate was forecast to slow to 6.7%.

The economy is in the process of rebalancing away from the investment-heavy and export-dependent model that brought four decades of breakneck economic growth but left China heavily in debt. According to economists the sustainable external demand and strong household consumption will support the country's economy.

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